Labrador Rescue South Africa

Who are we?

Labrador Rescue South Africa is a non-profit organization facilitating the rescue and re-homing of Labradors all across South Africa. With the help of our partners, sponsors, foster parents and volunteers we also deal with rehabilitation of traumatized dogs, and assist where we can with the lost and found. The work we do is solely dependent on donations, using which we have been able to rescue, rehome and rehabilitate thousands of dogs in the time that we’ve been operating.

Meet The Team

Jane lives in Johannesburg and manages a branch of a National Pool Equipment Wholesaler. Of all of us, Jane has the most experience with Labradors as a breed as she has been involved in Field Trials for many years and is a qualified Field Trial judge. She has done a number of courses on dog...

Sharon has recently moved to Grahamstown, Eastern Cape from Johannesburg. Her background and training is in Public Relations, Media, Marketing, Conferences and Sales. An avid animal lover, she grew up in a house where she and all her siblings were always bringing home some waif or stray. She has 5 dogs and 4 cats –...

Ricki lives in Cape Town and is a pilot by profession. She had her own charter company which she has put on ice to be a full time wife and mother. Ricki fell in love with Labradors when she rescued her Buddy off Gum tree and was appalled that no one even cared who she...

Ruth is based in Johannesburg where she manages a family wire mesh company although her professional background is in human resource management and training. As well as holding graduate qualifications in teaching and psychology, Ruth is an accredited Animal Behaviourist and Practitioner Member of the international CAPBT Association. She is a Professional Member of both the APDT...

I live in Knysna and work as a Freelance Copy-editor and Proofreader. I love horses and have a Cape Boerperd and teach riding lessons and also teach spinning lessons at a local gym. I have three sons, Christopher (21) living in London, Danny (19) in Cape Town and Jonathan (17) at school in Knysna. I...

I grew up with Lab’s, they were my best friends and I believe they instilled a sense of compassion and responsibility in me. Unfortunately there was a time when I did not have a Lab and there was always something missing.My life is only complete when I have a lab 🙂 I currently have two...

My name is Julie Hyams and I am part of the JHB based Lab Rescue crew. I come from a marketing background, but gave up corporate life ten years ago to be a full-time, stay at home mum to Erin and Daniel and wife to Robin. Having a mum as a vet, I have grown...

I am a Labby mom of 3 – I have had Labs for the past 17 years and I can’t ever see myself being without 1 or 3 in my life. I have 2 gorgeous adult black Labs and my husband and I have recently adopted a black rescue pup. We have a very strict...

Dogs have always, and will always be a large part of my life. From a young age I was very interested in field trialling, and this is where my love for Labradors began. I spent my gap year in Denmark, where I trained puppies that were destined to be used in field trialling. Upon return...

Natalie currently runs her own real estate company specialising in the Kyalami area. Her love of animals started from a very young age rescuing every animal she came across. Her love extended to horse riding, resulting in actually breeding race horses. In her quest to help animals she and her partner Barry became puppy raisers...

Our Organization

Labrador Rescue started as a part of the Labrador Retriever Kennel Club (LRKC) Although still affiliated, we split from them in 2013 in order to better run our rapidly growing Rescue operations and to register as a Not for Profit Company (NPC).

We are grateful for the ongoing support that we receive from the LRKC and we appeal to all members to include a donation to Lab Rescue in their annual membership fees to help us continue our efforts.

The Vets and Veterinary Clinics that we are so blessed to have working with us assist with sterilizations, inoculations and other services at heavily reduced costs, or sometimes gratis – for which we are immensely grateful.

We are passionate advocates of pet sterilization and encourage everyone to have their pets sterilized to prevent unwanted births, and reduce the amount of abandoned and neglected animals, who are the ones who ultimately pay the price.

We work closely with the SA Guide Dogs Association, with whom we have rehomed 11 rescue dogs to date, now in various stages of training.

Another 2 dogs have been rehomed with a company that specializes in sniffer dogs and explosives detection.

On average, we attempt to find suitable new homes for around 70 Labradors and Labrador-crosses every week. This is a mammoth task, with kenneling and vets bills presenting the largest expense, even with the reduced rates that our kind associates provide.

Apart from donations, which are the life-blood of our operation, we also need suitable foster families and volunteers countrywide. Volunteers help with giving lifts, performing house checks and generally raising much-needed awareness. Foster families are those angels among us who take in rescued dogs at a moment’s notice, providing them with a stable, loving home until they are adopted.

Using Facebook has been spectacularly helpful in successfully rescuing and rehoming these dogs. It has also helped tremendously in finding the owners of lost dogs.

We thank all of those who participate and help us to build a richer, more powerful network. Please share to help us find loving families for these beautiful dogs – Facebook is free!